The Amazing Story of flight Delta 15

email | 11/9/2001

[Utah Girl]

This was written by a flight attendant on Delta flight 15; checked it out at snopes.com, and this really did happen. A good heartwarming story.

[Utah Girl]

ping

[Uncle Fud]

Why does this come as no surprise to me??

We decided to LIE to the passengers while we were still in the air.

[OldFriend]

This was posted a few weeks ago but well worth a repeat.

[Utah Girl]

Sorry, in this situation I would have done the same thing. I thought this was a heartwarming story, who cares if the flight attendants and pilot decided to tell a lie for an hour or two?

[Utah Girl]

It was? Oops, I even did a search for it. Oh well, it is worth posting again. ;-)

[cmsgop]

First I have heard of this. Good Stuff!

[summer]

bttt.

[Uncle Fud]

I can see your point, it's just that if you fly as much as I do, you start to assume that any PA announcement directed at passengers, explaining why a flight is not going to go as planned, has a 50/50 or better chance of being a lie.

[Capt_Hank]

I was enroute on 9-11 to Houston, TX from Philadelphia that morning. The captain came on the intercom and stated, "Folks, I have to make an announcement about something I never thought would or could happen." He went on to explain what happened and we were landing in Birmingham, AL, the nearest airport. He was honest about what was happening.

[Romulus]

The decision to deceive the passengers was the captain's, who is charged with an absolute duty of ensuring the safety of the ship and of her passengers and crew. Under the circumstances, the passengers have no "right to know" .

[Uncle Fud]

I salute that flight crew. There was no need to lie, it would have been perfectly OK to say, "we've been asked by Center to divert to xxx airport, the plane is perfectly safe". I've encountered too many phony "mechanicals" when the airline didn't feel they'd sold enough seats, which is why I really got steamed by the original post.

[VMI70]

Thanks for the post-I missed it the first time around. It is a great story. I live in VA, and I'll try to find out who the Doctor is.

[freeasinbeer]

Anybody have a link to the original story? I can't seem to find it anywhere, but would like to view it. Thanks

[Romulus]

The crew had no way of knowing whether they might have had a terrorist on board, who could have benefitted from information. Slim chance, but with four planes down (and rumors of more, as I heard that day), where's the upside in taking a chance? In circumstances like this, in international airspace, with the aircraft possibly in danger, the crew has a lot of fast thinking to do. They are not interested in your whining about your "rights." The captain is in charge, and his word is law. Get over it.

[homeschool mama]

Wonderful story!

[Uncle Fud]

I mentioned nothing about my "right" to be fully informed (ref. my post 12), rather I observed that telling an outright lie seemed the natural thing for them to do.

[Congressman Billybob]

Phil,

This is a magnificent story. I think you want to get the flight attendant, and the Dr., and someone from Lewisporte on the air.

I grew up in a very small town (Salisbury, Md.). That's one of the reasons I chose to spend the balance of my days in another small town (Highlands, NC.) after decades of living in various large cities. People are different, and in some ways better, in small towns. This is a story about that.

The "Red Zone" will live this story.

Congressman Billybob

[TXBubba]

Thanks for the post. There was an article about this in the Wall Street Journal (this week?) also. I would be interested to know how the scholarship fund is going.

[homeschool mama]

I guess they could have been completely honest...and risk the hysteria of some passengers while in the air. Regardless, hindsight is always 20/20.